Best Flag Designs

"NAVA, the North American Vexillological Association, conducted a poll on its website, asking its members and the public their opinions of flag designs in the U.S. and Canada....

"Participants rated 72 flags on their design qualities (rather than on political, historical, or geographic considerations)...

"The public’s overall responses paralleled those of NAVA members quite closely... Their insightful comments showed a strong intuitive grasp of flag design and confirmed NAVA’s expert opinions on design principles. One doesn’t need to be a flag expert to know a good flag design....

"The highest-scoring flags all embody the five basic principles listed in NAVA’s publication on flag design, Good Flag, Bad Flag:

"1. Keep It Simple (The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory...)

"2. Use Meaningful Symbolism (The flag’s images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes...)

"3. Use 2–3 Basic Colors (Limit the number of colors on the flag to three, which contrast well and come from the standard color set...)

"4. No Lettering or Seals (Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal...)

"5. Be Distinctive or Be Related (Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections...)

"Good Flag, Bad Flag: How to Design a Great Flag is downloadable free from the NAVA website. It can help any organization, tribe, company, family, neighborhood, city, county, state, or even country design a great flag."

--North American Vexillological Association, 2001 June 10


1. New Mexico

3. Quebec

4. Maryland

5. Alaska

6. Arizona

9. Republic of the Marshall Islands

10. South Carolina

The flag of Maryland is one of my favorite flags. I hate the flag of Arizona; it looks like a nondescript mall decoration.

Flag Variations

"Blood Flag"

"Black-Spangled Banner"

"Reverse Black-Spangled Banner Against All-White"

"Reverse Flag"

"Blue Barcode Stain"

"Grey Grille"

"Orange Reverse"

"Pink Grille"

"Vomit Grille"

"Barcode Stain
(Black-Spangled Banner Against All-White)"

Flag Variations

Radigan Neuhalfen

2010

Linus Pauling, 1962 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

1945 March 7, Los Angeles Examiner:

"Jap Flag Painted on Garage Door

"Altadena, March 6--'Americans die but we love Japs.'

"On the walls of the garage at the home of Dr. Linus Pauling, Caltech chemistry professor, last night were emblazoned those words. Near by, also in red paint was a crude Jap flag.

"Dr. Pauling, developer and chairman of the chemistry and chemical engineering department at Caltech, recently hired a 24-year-old Japanese-American from the relocation center at Hart Mountain to do gardening work for him.

"The young Japanese-American, George Miniaki, was born in Gardena and is a graduate of Monrovia High School. His parents are still at the relocation center.

"Said Dr. Pauling:

"'I do not know who is responsible for this un-American act. I suspect, however, that this trespass on our home was carried out by one or more of those misguided people who believe that American citizens should be persecuted in the same way that the Nazis have persecuted the Jewish citizens of Germany.'"

Norsk Høstfest

www.Hostfest.com

Happy Independence Day

propaganda poster
Harald Damsleth
1906-1971 Norwegian

a better world flag

The Flag of Earth
James W. Codle

Bonne Fête du Canada.

Happy Canada Day.

a World Flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Flag

and with the Nordic Cross on the flag

"The Global Peace Index ranks Norway as the most peaceful country in the world. Every year for half a decade, Norway has ranked number one in standard of living, life expectancy, literacy, and education. The unemployment rate is half that of America, its crime rate is low, and it has the second highest gross domestic product.

"Norway is a model country. Yet more than 70 percent of its population claim to be either atheist or agnostic. Only 26 percent of Norway’s population believe in God.

"Norway had Christian roots, even more so than the United States whose Founding Fathers purposely left religion out of the Constitution. But Norway has shed its religious upbringing and has become one of the safest, most progressive, and most peaceful countries in the world."

--http://wilstar.com/OverCoffee/blog/2007/10/religious-propaganda-in-my-school.html

Happy Sami National Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people

A link to some photos of the riots in July.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mongol/sets/72157602478404203/

art.worldmongol.com

http://art.worldmongol.com/

The Conqueror

"When you think of Genghis Khan (Mongolian, conqueror of half the known world, shrewd military tactician, Mongolian, mass murderer, Mongolian, vengeful, Mongolian) who do you picture? John Wayne, right? Exactly. And that's why he was an inspired casting choice for Howard Hughes' 1956 epic The Conqueror. Speaking before the film was made, Wayne said 'the way the screenplay reads it's a cowboy picture, and that's how I'm going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter.'"

--Danny Harkins, Cracked.com

Mongolian flags

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/mn.html

Important religious questions (vis-a-vis Christian evangelism)

"The Charge of the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus in 1242"

Giuseppe Rava
1963- Italian

In Heaven, will my grandmother, who died at 80 years of age, look like she did when she was 80? Should people hope to die at a young age, so that they can be young in Heaven?

What is Heaven like? Where is Heaven located? What’s the weather like there? Can you see stars or planets from Heaven? What language is spoken in Heaven? Where do people live? Are there houses? What kind of entertainment is there?

What happens to disabled people in Heaven?

Say a married man dies and goes to Heaven. His wife remarries. Later, the wife and the new husband die and go to Heaven. Isn’t it awkward when these two guys meet up with their singular wife? What happens then?

Does God have a wife? If not, doesn’t He get lonely?

Why did God rest on the seventh day? Why would a perfect supreme being need to rest?

Why would God punish humanity so severely simply because a woman wanted knowledge?

Why did God expect Cain to give Him his best sheep? And why did He turn him away when he did not, inciting him to kill his brother Abel?

How did Noah collect the virus that causes AIDS for the Ark? And polio? And influenza? More importantly, why?

Why did Jesus have to pay for the sins of humanity? Why not the Devil?

Why did God even create the Devil? Just to torment and punish His creation? If so, then is this god worthy of praise or devotion?

If God intended the Bible to be His message to all humanity for all time, why does it lack so much fundamental data? Why didn’t He mention that the planets travel in elliptical orbits around the sun, or include references to the periodic table of elements, or allude to the double-helix structure of DNA?

How do you know there is only one god? How do you know there aren’t two? Or ten? Or millions?

Why doesn’t God answer—in easy-to-read, ASCII-formatted text—my prayers?

Why do angels have wings? Why didn’t humans get wings?

Why did God make the Universe expand at a slower rate in the past and accelerate its expansion in the present? Is it because dark matter really does have expansive powers, or are there other universes with gravity pulling ours towards theirs?

Who or what created God?

What evidence is there against the existence of God? What evidence is there against the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Why won't God heal amputees? Why does God seem to cure cancer and other diseases daily, yet he unfailingly ignores the prayers of amputees? Does God hate amputees? Why?

Is God a man or a woman or both or neither?

Through the hundreds of years of religious killing in Europe and the Middle East, whose side has God been on? Catholics or Protestants? Orthodox or Catholics? Christians or Jews? Jews or Muslims? Muslims or Christians? Sunni or Shi'ite? Whose side is He on now?

Do you love your god more than you love your country?

Does God prefer to keep critical thinkers out of Heaven by letting them become atheists, rather than eternally suffer their incessant, impudent questioning of his judgment and authority?

Does God believe in a higher power? If not, then that would mean that God is an atheist.

--adapted from http://members.aol.com/nogodperiod/qs_for_christians.htm

After Riding Out Looking For The Horses

Photo by Martin Stielow